Non-res seeking location tips

Hey everyone!

Name's Phill and I'm a 36yo Minnesota resident who's been hunting whitetails in the woods and farmlands of MN and Western WI with my family since before I was old enough to carry a pellet gun.

I've always been interested in hunting a western state for muleys and have recently decided to plan my first western hunt for 2017 in central Idaho. My long time hunting buddy, fortunately for him, unfortunately for me, had a Wyoming elk trip already planned with his Dad and Brother for next year, but I'm not getting any younger and I'm going to try and pack in on my own with a tentative idea that we will both be able to go in 2018, possibly for elk.

I've been pouring over maps and google earth for about 3 weeks. All these mountains and valleys are beautiful beyond words and if I were a gnarly old buck, I'd be happy living in any of them, but of course I'm not and I have no experience to draw from. Now I'm not looking for anyone to blow up their own coveted spots, but I know a little local knowledge can be invaluable and I'd be grateful for any information anybody is willing to impart.

As of right now, I'm most interested in the areas south of Ruffneck Peak off the Idaho Centennial Trail, Potato Mountain, and the areas surrounding Castle and Blackmon Peaks as far north as the Fisher Creek trailhead and as far south as the Deer Lakes.

Do any of these areas hold significantly more or less deer? How hard are they hunted by folks? Are any of these places within good fall migration corridors? Am I barking up the wrong peaks entirely? Am I going to get eaten by a bear, haha?!

Like I said, any info would be greatly appreciated and thanks in advance!

Phill

Good luck man

Phill,

I would recommend looking at units first before you narrow down to the specific areas. To pick a unit I would look at harvest stats, previous MM posts, and talk to biologists. I don't think you could go wrong if you do some good research and stick to some of the better general season units.

You may want to consider a unit with higher elk and deer populations.

I would not recommend early season unit 27 or 35 (I believe) which is the area near Ruffneck Peak. Huge county, very spread out deer population results in low harvest stats.

Once you have an area, I would recommend getting boots on the ground. You can talk to biologists or look at MM posts to see what kind of migration routes are happening but in October when most of the general season deer hunts are going, migration isn't huge especially on the front end of the hunt.

Best of luck with everything.

Kyle